1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an for drying laundry, fabric articles and other household goods and more particularly to a multipurpose dryer which can serve as a household drying center to provide versatile drying functions for a wide variety of fabric and non-fabric goods of different type, material, size or weight.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A household usually has many different types of Fabric and non-fabric goods that need to be washed and/or dried from time to time. Those goods are of different materials and have different drying requirements. Besides the regular laundry such as underwear, casual wear and linen that can withstand the fraying of a conventional tumbler dryer, there are other delicate clothing, heavy articles or bulky goods that need special or different care in the drying process. For examples, after returning home from work or school on a rainy day, the damp coat, suit, dress or pants usually should be hung for drying, the dripping umbrella or raincoat should be handled separately, and the soaked shoes or boots need still different handling. In the warm season, the suit, dress, blouse or trousers have to be aerated and dried to expel the traces of perspiration or other odors. Nylon stocking, pantyhose and woolen sweater should be dried at a relatively low temperature to avoid excessive shrinking. Knitted wear usually should not be hung on a hanger or it may stretch and deform. Some bulky goods such as quilt, comforter, sleeping bag or blanket needs to be draped and spread for drying once in a while to prevent mold. There are still other odd shape or heavy goods that need to be washed or dried occasionaly, such as hat, cushion, stuffed toys, wadded jacket, sneakers, and the like. Then there are dishes and tableware that need to be washed and dried almost daily, and kitchen utensils that need to be washed and dried for stacking and storage.
Over the years, a prolific number of drying and heating appliances have been developed and marketed. Numerous drying means have been disclosed in the prior art trying to meet the aforesaid requirements. However they mostly can provide only a limited range of function to serve a narrow scope of purpose. A family could end up buying a number of different drying or heating appliances, some of which could not be or efficiently used. Adding up together, they could cost a lot of money and occupy much house space. It is not economically or practically sensible. More detailed elaboration of the prior art appliances and their problems will be given below as a background and comparison for the improvement of the present invention.
As is generally known, the widely used tumbler dryer equipped with a rotary drum has relatively high drying efficiency for general household laundry that can withstand shrinkage or wrinkling. Its limitations and shortcomings are also well known. Notably, the constant tossing, dropping, bumping and tangling of the goods caused by the rotary drum often result in fraying and wrinkles on the fabrics of the laundry. It is therefore not desirable for drying delicate or high value clothing or articles such as suit, coat, dress, hat, woolen sweater, pantyhose or the like. It is also not suitable for drying heavy or odd shape goods such as shoes, boots, stuffed toys, umbrella or the like. The relatively small size of the rotary drum of a domestic dryer also does not permit to be for drying bulky goods such as quilt, pillow or sleeping bag.
There are many different proposals being advanced in the prior art trying to resolve some of the aforementioned problems by providing static drying chamber or means which can hold the drying goods stationary during the drying process. However they rarely have achieved significant commercial success as they also have their share of drawbacks or functional limitations. The following are some of the notable examples.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,707,838 (Braman), 3,626,602 (Glowacki) and 3,858,331 (Lord) disclose clothes dryers or garment heating apparatus that generally have an upright central strut which supports hangers or horizontally extended bars to suspend the clothes for drying. Some of them do not have a defined drying enclosure (e.g. Braman and Glowacki) which could cause significant heat loss thus resulting in lower drying efficiency. Most important, the central strut and hanger become the boundry and limitation of the type of applicable goods. They are in general not suitable for drying bulky or odd shape goods such as quilt, cushion, stuffed toys, shoes or the like. There are other type of dryers which offer generally cantilever bars having one end thereof fixed on a wall. Representative disclosures include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,256,617 (Konstandt), 3,975,833 (Rothauser et al.) and 4,924,604 (Colodner et al.). Like those proposals with a central strut cited above, some of those devices also have a defined drying enclosure which results in dubious drying efficiency (e.g. Konstandt, Rothauser et al. and Colodner et al.). Furthermore, with one end of the bars or one side of the device fixed on a wall, they have severe functional limitation and protability problem. They are also not desirable for drying bulky or odd shape goods such as comforter, pillow, stuffed toys, sneakers or the like.
There are still more references being disclosed in the prior art that provide generally a well defined drying enclosure and has hanger supporting bars or rods disposed between two opposite walls or fixed on a top wall of a static housing. Again, the hanger, the length of the bar or rod and the way the bar or rod is disposed become the limitation and restriction of their applicability. They usually have another type of problem. These devices generally have the drying medium (usually heated air) flowing into the drying enclosure from one side and discharging out at a remote or opposite side. Experiments show that the drying medium cannot be evenly distributed across the entire static drying enclosure this way. The goods or parts of the goods located around the inlet port of the heated air usually will be heated and dried while those goods or other parts of the goods remote from the inlet port will remain damp much longer. Representative disclosures include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,728,996 (Mason), 3,152,876 (Laing), 3,280,477 (Rawlins), 3,449,838 (Chancellor,Jr.), 3,670,425(Benjamin et al.), 4,180,919 (Baltes),4,819,341 (Gayso) and 4,873,773(Canonge).
There are also discolsures in the prior art trying to provide a which can serve multiple function. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,785,162 (Kuo) and 4,856,206 (Klein) are two of the examples. However they are mainly for drying small size articles. They are not suitable for drying regular laundry, clothes or bulky goods such as blanket or wadded jacket.
Since a general purpose dryer like any of those cited above cannot fully meet all the drying requirments of a household, some specific drying means have been proposed or developed to meet the specific drying function needed. For examples, U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,658 (Hibino et al.) revealed a bed clothes drying device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,881 (Karlsson) disclosed a drier for knitted garments. U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,787 (Bunting) disclosed a heating cabinet mainly for small size and thick fabric article. U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,911(Wolens et al.) revealed an apparatus for drying sweater and small size articles. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,016,364(Cochrane) and 5,379,525(Raynor) disclosed dryers for shoes or boots.
Besides the dryers for drying laundry and fabric articles, there are other type of drying appliances in a general household. e.g. dish dryer for drying dishes and tableware. It usually cannot even be used for drying kitchen utensils such as pot, pan or boiler due to its small drying cabinet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,621 (Brotherton) is but one of the examples.
From what have been described heretofore, it can be seen that there are many different types of drying requirements in a general household. To the Applicant's knowledge, there is no dryer, either produced and marketed or disclosed in the prior art, which can fully or efficiently satisfy those requirements.